His Whole Life

Jesus once said, “I always do what pleases my Father” (John 8:29). We do well then to understand that his crucifixion was more than a free-standing act that ended his life and thereby established the atonement. Rather, it culminated his righteousness and epitomized his constant goodness throughout his years of incarnation. He did not simply come among us and do the one deed that saves us. He needed to do the Father’s will at each point along the way to qualify himself for the Father to appoint him as the righteous One who saves us from unrighteousness.

On the other hand, doing his Father’s will his whole life and then failing in the end would not have accomplished perfect righteousness either. His example along the way and in the end calls on us to do likewise during life and ending it. Ingesting the bread and wine ingests tokens of writing these things on our own hearts, the source of all our doing.